Total pages in book: 174
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 172061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 860(@200wpm)___ 688(@250wpm)___ 574(@300wpm)
With energy and life.
Addy’s eyes narrowed. Unsure, though she widened the door. “Do you want to eat with us?”
Something went fuzzy in my chest as I approached.
“Yeah, Addy, I would like that.”
Her smile was timid, but she swept her hand to the side like she was inviting me in.
Warily, I moved into the cabin.
Daisy was at the stove, unfazed and unfrazzled as she directed the chaos inside. “Eva, go ahead and get in your chair at the table. Colin, go wash your hands. Addy, can you take this bowl of eggs to the table?”
Daisy lifted the skillet and piled the steaming scrambled eggs into a dish.
She wore the same thing she did last night. The moment I had seen her standing in the doorway with the morning light raining around her, it was my brain that had gotten scrambled.
Entertaining thoughts I had no right entertaining.
But there they were again.
Nearly overpowering.
Woman in my kitchen in that draping, oversized sweatshirt and these tiny shorts that showed off the delicious length of her legs. Her hair a messy pile on her head.
Pieces fell out of the twist, brushing down her back and kissing her stunning face.
Her profile on display. Her jaw sharp. The rest of her soft.
Her nose this cute fucking button that I loved when she scrunched it up.
Every inch of her was nothing but a tease.
The sight of her mortal temptation.
Because I had the unbearable urge to stalk across the room, prop her on the counter, and kiss the fuck out of her.
Like she was mine to claim.
Or maybe drag her into my room and peel her out of those flimsy clothes to get to the sweetness underneath. Glut myself on what I’d been dreaming of for what felt like a hundred years. Memories spiraling back to all those times when she’d sneak into my room. How she’d curl up beside me on my bed. The way she blossomed each day.
My best friend.
My friend who somewhere along the way I’d realized was meant to be so much more.
But it would be the greatest crime. An unforgivable offense.
She peeked over at me.
Her cheeks flushed red, like she felt the need boiling my insides.
“Are you hungry?” she asked, her voice raspy.
“Starving,” I grunted.
Famished.
Depleted.
Empty.
And somehow, she was here, filling me up in a way I shouldn’t let her.
The woman had me making promises I never should make. Confiding things in her that I was forbidden to speak.
Laying my sins out like she could be the keeper of them.
It was reckless, but I refused to go into this without her knowing who I’d become, even though I couldn’t give her the details. Couldn’t drag my brothers into my mistakes.
But it was true, what I told her last night.
I had never been able to tell her no, and I had no idea how to start then.
A soft smile edged her sexpot mouth. “Good. I made enough for an army.”
I was a fucking fool because I inched deeper into the kitchen. Drawn to her like she was the gravity I’d been missing. When I’d been floating out in the nothingness without a destination, she’d become my target.
My intent.
My heart’s resolution.
“Can I help with something?” It was low and pocked with the need she incited.
“No. Go sit down, and I’ll bring it to you.”
“I am capable of feeding myself.”
“But wouldn’t it be a whole lot more enjoyable if I did it for you?” She peeked over at me. Something coy crept to her expression.
Fuck me.
She had every intention of doing me in, didn’t she?
I kept moving closer, and my voice dropped lower. “You aren’t here to take care of me. It’s the other way around.”
She turned to face me, which meant I basically had her backed into the counter.
Her aura was all around. That sweet floral scent dosed with a splash of vanilla. Infiltrating like a drug.
Took everything I had not to press my nose into her neck and inhale.
The world seemed to disappear as she whispered, “Would it be so bad if we took care of each other?”
“It’s all I ever wanted to do, Daisy. Take care of you.”
Sadness rippled through the intense blue of her mesmerizing gaze. “And the only thing I ever wanted was to be with you.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond to what she implied. Like I had the right to stay after what I’d done.
Desolation crawled through my insides. She had no clue. No clue about what I’d done. That might have been the greatest betrayal of all.
A commotion of footsteps suddenly broke into the bubble that surrounded us. “I got my hands washed and I’m ready to eat. Then I gotta go back out with Mr. Cash and work because I’m gonna get a new pack and a patch. And we got some new kids we gotta meet because Mr. Cash has some nieces and nephews that we don’t even know. Did you know that, Mom?”